Gas-engine governor.



PATENTED MAY 2, 1905.

T. B. JEFPERY. GAS ENGINE GOVERNOR APPLICATION FILED 920.14, 1903. RENEWED APR. 2, 1905.

UNITED STATES Patented May 2, 1905.

THOMAS B. JEFFERY, OF KENOSHA, VISCONSIN.

GAS-ENGINE GOVERNOR.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 789,027, dated May 2, 1905.

Application filed December 14, 1903. Renewed April 3, 1905. Serial No. 253,629.

To all whom, it may concern:

Be it known that I, THOMAS B. JEFFERY, a citizen of the United States, residing at Kenosh a, in the county of Kenosha and State of VVisconsin, have invented new and useful Improvements in Gas-Engine Governors, of which the following is a specification, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming apart thereof.

The purpose of this invention is to provide an improved governor for an electric igniter to govern the time of sparking conformably to the speed of the motor for the particular purpose which arises in the use of explosivemotors in automobile vehicles, of preventing the engine from running away by the continued advancing of the time of sparking as the speed increases, and to cause such increase of speed after a certain predetermined point to retard instead of advance the sparking.

It consists of the features of construction set out in the claims.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a plan view of the governing device constituting or embodying my invention shown at position of rest. Fig. 2 is a similar view showing the parts in full line at the position approaching maximum speed and in dotted line at a position which they would take upon further increase of speed beyond the intended maximum. Fig. 3 is a view similar to Fig. 2, showing a modification.

1 represents the shaft of the mechanism, which is driven by the engine in uniform time relation thereto that is, so that said shaft makes a known number of revolutions for each cycle of the engines action, the number in the construction shown being one and being necessarily as many only as there are contact-piecesrevolving with the shaft for closing the circuit for sparking. 2 is a disk secured to said shaft and rotating therewith and having pivoted to it the centrifugal elements 3 8 3, having links 3 connecting their free ends with lugs 2 on the disk, the links playing through the lugs for compression of the springs 3 interposed between the heads of the links and said lugs to resist centrifugal action, the links being provided with nuts 3 to adjust the tension of the springs so as to vary the distance to which the centrifugal element will be thrown by a given speed of rotation of the shaft.

4 is an element mounted on the shaft 1 for oscillation thereabout com prising a sleeve having cross-head consisting of the opposite pro-- jecting lever-arms at a, connected at their extremities by the links 5 5 with the centrifugal elements 3 3, respectively, so that the oscil lation of said centrifugal elements toward and from the center as the speed of rotation varies carries the opposite ends of the crosshead or lever-arms a in opposite directions, causing the element 4 to beoscillated about the shaft while at the same time it is rotated therewith by virtue of its connection with the centrifugal elements which are carried by the disk fast on said shaft.

On the sleeve 4: there is mounted a contactpiece 6 for making contact, as the sleeve rotates with the shaft, with a fixed-contact element 7, carried by any fixed part. It will be seen that as the speed increases the movement of the centrifugal elements 3 away from the axis of the shaft tends to rock the sleeve 4 in direction to carry the contact-piece around the shaft in the direction in which the latter is rotating, which has the effect of advancing or hastening the contact of the two elements 6 and 7 and the ignition caused by the spark resulting from the making and breaking of such contact. This action is desired in the motor of an automobile vehicle for the purpose of making the ignition at starting and at slow speed occur safely late in the cycle of the engines action to avoid the danger of its occurrence before the piston has commenced its movement outward that is, in the direction in which it would be impelled by the explosion-since if the ignition occurs at an earlier point, the piston and the connected parts having no momentum or only slight momentum, the result of the explosion would be to reverse the direction of rotation. As speed is gained and the momentum becomes sufficient to remove danger of such reversion earlier ignition is desirable in order to get the best result from the explosion according to well-understood principles. When the vehicle is at rest and the motor is disconnected from the running-gear, but, as is usual, is

left running in order to maintain the proper conditions for prompt starting, there is danger that the speed will continue to increase without limit on account of the light work which is being done, and it is necessary to provide means for automatically limiting the speed at a safe point. For this purpose the contact-piece 6 is mounted on the sleeve .1: pivotally, its pivot 9 being a little distance off from the center of the sleeve and shaft, a spring 10 and a stop-linger 11 being provided, which together operate to hold the contactpiece at a certain definite position with respect to the shaft and the pivot of said contact-piece, as seen in Fig. 1. The pivot of said contact-piece is a short rock-shaft 9, having a lever-arm 12, which projects off from the center over the face of one of the centrifugal elements 3 at an angle preferably approximating a right angle to a line which might be drawn radially from the axis of the shaft to the middle of the contact-surface of the contact-piece 6. WVith this construction it will be seen that any obstacle encountered by the lever-arm 12 as the sleeve & rocks about the shaft 1 will operate as the rocking continues to rock the rock-shaft 9 in its bearing on the sleeve in direction to carry the end of the contact-piece 6 inward toward the axis of the shaft 1 and out of position for contact with the fixed contact-piece '7. According to the direction of the pivot of the contact-piece (the axis of the rock-shaft 9) from the point of contact of the piece 6 the movement of the contact end of said contactpiece 6 will be more or less directly inward toward the axis of the shaft 1 and less or more tangential with respect to the path of rotation of said contact-piece about said shaft, and in so far as its movement approximates such tangential direction it is moved back with respect to the direction of its rotation about the shaft, and since the contact-piece? is necessarily arranged to operate with some yielding pressure for making contact and will therefore follow the inward movement of the contact-piece 6 to some extent the movement of'the piece 6 by the means above described, while tending ultimately to withdraw said piece out of the path for contact, and so to interrupt the sparking, tends first that is, in the initial part of its movement caused by the rocking of its shaft 9 to merely retard or delay the sparking to the extent that its contact end moves back in the path of rotation. Ultimately, however that is, if the speed continues to increase notwithstanding the slight recession of the contact-piece 6 caused by the commencing of the rocking movement of its shaft 9the continuance of said movement will withdraw the contactpiece 6 entirely out of range of the piece 7, and the sparking will be prevented and the explosion in the engine-cylinder intermitted, with the immediate effect of reducing the speed and the permanent effect of preventing the speed from beingmaintained at a point which will keep the contact-piece 6 continuously in the path for encounter with the pi ce 7. l have shown two different devices for encounter of the lever-arm 12 to cause the rocking of the shaft 9 and withdrawal of the contact-piece 6, as described.

In Figs. 1 and 21 have shown a stud 15 projecting from the disk 2 beyond the centrifugal element 3. In Fig. 3 I have shown a stud 16 mounted on the centrifugal element in position for encounter with the lever-arm 12, as described. In the latter construction the action is somewhat more efficient, because to the movement of the sleeve a about the shaft there is added the movement of the centrifugal element 3 in a direction tending to act positively upon the lever-arm 12 for the rocking movement which it is desired to produce. The extent of this movement consequent upon any given centrifugal movement of the centrifugal element or rocking movement of the sleeve depends in the form illustrated in Fig. 3 upon the direction in which the lever-arm 12 extends outward from the point at which it encounters the stud 16. By bending this arm out a considerable angle from a radial line at the point at which such encounter occurs the effective movement of the contactpiece 6 for a given movement of the centrifugal elements may be greatly increased, and this structure, which is illustrated, is preferable for this reason.

I claim 1. Agas-enginegovernorcomprisingashaft rotated in uniform time relation to the complete cycle of the engines action; a centrifugal elcment carried by the shaft; an element rocking on the shaft and connected to such centrifugal element for such rocking move ment; a contact-piece-carrying element pivotally connected with the rocking element eccentrically with respect to the shaft, and means operating, after limited movement of the rocking element, to move the contactpiece-carrying element about its said eccentric pivot for carrying the contact-piece out of contact-making path.

2. A gas-engine governor comprising a shaft rotated in uniform time relation to the complete cycle of the engines action; a centrifugal element carried by the shaft; an element rocking on the shaft and connected to such centrifugal element for such rocking movement; a contact-piece-carrying element pivotally connected with the rocking element eccentrically with respect to the shaft; means holding it in contact-making position, and means operating, after limited movement of the rocking element, to move said contactpiece-carrying element about its said eccentric pivot and carry the contact-piece out of contact-making path.

8. Agas-enginegovernorcomprisingashalt rotated in uniform time relation to the complete cycle of the engines action; a centrifugal element carried by the shaft; an element rocking on the shaft, and connected to such centrifugal element for such rocking movement; a contact-piece-carrying element pivoted to said rocking element eccentrically with respect to the shaft; means for holding it yieldingly in contact-making position, said contact-piece-carrying elementhavinga leverarm and an abutment carried by the shaft in its rotation in position for encounter by said lever-arm as the latter is carried With the rocking movement of said rocking element for moving the contact-piece-carrying element about its pivot to the rocking element out of contact-making position.

4. Agas-enginegovernorcomprisingashaft rotated in uniform time relation to the complete cycle of the engines action; centrifugal elements carried by the shaft; an element rocking on the shaft and connected to such centrifugal element for such rocking movement; at contact-piece-ca rrying element pivoted to said rocking element; means holding it yieldingly in contact-making position, said contact-piece-carrying element having a leverarm extending off from the shaft, the centrifugal element having an abutment in position for encounter by said lever-arm in the rocking movement of the rocking element and the centrifugal movement of the centrifugal element, for swinging the contact-piece-carrying element about its pivot to the rocking element to withdraw it out of the contact-making path.

5. A gas-engine governor comprising a contact-piece-carrying element and means for rotating it in uniform time relation to the complete cycle of the engines action; centrifugal devices operated by such rotation, and connections by Which their centrifugal movement advances the contact-piece-carrying element in the direction 'of its rotation, and means rotating with the centrifugal devices and encountered by the contact-piece-carrying element in its advancing movement for Withdrawing the contact-piece thereby out of contactmaking position.

6. A gas-engine governor comprising a shaft l I l l rotated in uniform time relation to the complete cycle of the engines action; a centrifugal element carried by the shaft; an element rocking on the shaft and connected to such centrifugal element for such rocking movement; a contact-piece-carrying element comprising a rock-shaft parallel to the axis of the first-mentioned shaft, mounted eccentrically thereto in the rocking element; a spring tending to hold the contact-piece of said element away from the shaft; a stop limiting the action of the spring, the rock-shaft having a lever-arm extending ofi from the first-mentioned shaft, and an abutment carried with the centrifugal element in its rotation and centrifugal movement, and encountering said lever-arm for rocking the rock-shaft in direction to carry the contact-piece out of contactmaking path.

7. A gas-engine governor comprising ashaft rotating in uniform time relation to the complete cycle of the engines action; a centrifugal element carried by the shaft; an element rocking on the shaft and connected to such centrifugal element for such rocking movement; a contact-piece-carrying element pivotally mounted upon the rocking element; a spring reacting on said contact-piece-carrying element to hold the contact-piece away from the shaft; a stop limiting the action of the spring, said contact piece carrying element having a lever-arm extending away from the shaft and deflected from radial direction at its outer part, and an abutment carried by the centrifugal element in its rotation and centrifugal movement, encountering said deflected portion of said lever-arm after-limited centrifugal movement for rocking the contactpiece-carrying element about its pivot to the rocking element and carrying the contactpiece out of contact-making path.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand, in the presence of tWo witnesses, at Chicago, Illinois, this 3d day of December, 1903.

THOS. B. J EFFERY.

In presence of (bias. S. BURTON, FREDK. G. FISCHER. 

